Choosing a Financial Planner…Part II: What about the alphabet soup?

When I decided to get into the financial planning industry in the late 90s, I had one designation as my final goal: Certified Financial Planner™ professional.  When I first heard that term, I was taking a Personal Finance class at Pierce College and getting my general education out of the way.  I was going to school full time and working as a project manager at a multimedia software training company full-time, but I knew that wasn’t the career for me.  I was trying to figure out what to do for the rest of my life and I took one semester to explore some alternatives by taking classes in programming, early childhood development and personal finance.

Although I enjoyed all of those classes, I found my passion with personal finance.  I realized I could have a career where I worked directly with people to define their goals and create a plan to meet them, then got to dive into the numbers through spreadsheets and analytics which I love, too.  Perfect blending of both worlds!

The CFP® is the top designation for financial planning and is the most rigorous to achieve.  It requires education through a board-certified program offering a certificate or degree, three years of experience in the field, an agreement to abide by the code of ethics, and successful passing of the 10-hour exam.  Then there are 30 continuing education hours required to complete bi-annually.

For those providing comprehensive financial planning, this is really the designation to have.  Other designations focus on different specialties within the industry and I’ve outlined some of the others that you may see:

CFA – Charted Financial Analyst – This is the top designation for those that manage money.  You’ll often see this designation held by mutual fund managers and by those at firms that specialize in money management.  Very rigorous series of exams required to complete.

CIMA – Certified Investment Management Analyst – This designation is not as rigorous as the CFA and is meant for those providing investment advice but assisting individuals in setting their asset allocation and screening money managers or mutual fund managers for those individuals.

CLU – Charted Life Underwriter – For those offering insurance services, this is the designation you may see.  This designation requires that a series of classes be completed offered by The American College.

Other designations that are not as rigorous to obtain, but indicate an interest or specialty in different areas:

CDFA – Certified Divorce Financial Analyst – Planners that can assist in the divorce process from a financial perspective to plan and educate for an equitable splitting of the assets.

CCPS – Certified College Planning Specialist – Planners that specialize in planning for college utilizing grants, scholarships, loans, investment options and tax strategies.

There is a smorgasbord of additional financial-related designations (over 80 that I last saw) that you may come across.  Be careful about being influenced by the “alphabet soup” after some people’s names.  Ask about the requirements for obtaining the designations and the continuing education requirements as well.  Honestly, I’ve seen that some designations don’t require that much work to achieve (other than perhaps a large check to the institution administering the designation), and then there isn’t any continuing ed requirement to stay on top of the changes in that area.